Ski France – Rescue Dogs

“Woof Factor Ten” published in Ski and Board. Fear not, avalanche rescue dogs are at hand when you ski France, as I discovered buried alive under the snow in Tignes.

Someone Furry Cares When You Ski France

My toes and fingers were already numb. Trapped several metres deep, I was beginning to freeze under the hard-packed snow. Had I been there for five minutes or fifteen? Probably longer.

For the second time, the dull thud of footsteps pulsed through the snow. I held my steaming breath, straining to hear. Were the thuds moving in my direction?

They seem to pause directly overhead. I couldn’t cry out. My body was taught with anticipation, desperate for the scraping sound of paws or the swishing stab of an avalanche probe. With a gasp, I started breathing again. This was it, I was out of here!

But the thuds receded until there was only silence again, even more intense. My rescuer would return; they had to return. I tried to calculate how long another search cycle would take. The numbers weren’t coming easily. I kept restarting the calculations. Suddenly, a change in the snow disturbed me…

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Jack Moscrop

I am a freelance adventure travel writer and sports writer who grew up in East Anglia. My published articles thrill from wreck diving, to mountain peaks in search of the ultimate ski run. They capture time from multi-month cycling trips, to ten second world-record attempts. And the stories roam from the Canadian Rockies to Kiwi caves, and South American deserts to Chinese treasures.